Indian chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1882-1902, 1887-04-14


ing his parents pictures and leaving
somo smoldcring cmbors In the ire-
place, he looked a mute farewell about
him, and, closing the window rs best
he could, went wcarily through tho
darkness that just precedes the morn
ing back to the town.
After brcakfasting he converscd =
while with the eflusive squire, and eX-
changing farewells with The Tresslers.
and hearing n far-Of explanatory;
"Lawkl lawkr' from the one time
Ilettic SPAWN rs he walked away, the
young man boarded train and was
whirled away into the South.
An inclination leading to Celeste,
which. not unlike soft inverted star,
burned ever at the bottom OF his life,
with its dim reflection glancing through
all the avenues and currents of his
feeling, seemed TO glow and enlarge
within him. He was going through
Cincinnati; there the lark throated
Celeste had a home with her dead
mothers best friend, and employed
her lovely gift in school Of music.
He would stop there; but no; when he
neared the place he knew he could not.
Son cthing like stain, a marring
likeness. stamped into his young
spirit by the hot contact of u
balf-pollutcd nature, seemed yet TO
make him unworthy. He could
net come to her now: though
why, or that he ever should. seemed
half In doubt. His life, so direct of
current until the Greck-faced, Indian
footed Maun had entered it, seemed
still, as It had for months, to run
round and round i'm an eddy where she
had sunk out of his sight IL did not
seem able to straighten away upon its
course. Yet, Celeste was there before
him, little aside and little above tho
millions of the world, with that inn
| ponderable something softly drawing
him to her. But he felt old and
numbed, and somehow half unclean,
recoiling before her whitencss. SO no
did not seek her, but boarded the train
| again, and, glancing through valley,
field and wood. which were beginning
to stir little with the near approach
OF spring, came erelong to Charleston,
5. c. Here he had hoped to look upon
the face OF his dead mother sister. but
after amonth-long search he found that
she, her husband and three children,
after Charleston was laid in ashes dur.
ing the war, had gone, possibly, TO
New Orleans.
So at last he turned his face toward
the gulf. and, being whirled away
through the sunshine and tho sap
witched world. felt something Of the
numbing WEAKNESS that had gathered
upon him melt of and dissolve among
the buds and fresh leaves by the way
side BY times the past and even the
object of his journey lapsod from his
consciousness, so reused and swectened
were his senses by this racing through
the waking world. But at lcngth he
was in New Orleans, and the days be-
| gan TO swing back, unhinge and fall
into golden ashes, rs he wandered
| through the quaint and bloomy by
streets, and out the long suburban
lanes that plowed away into the covn-
| try through seas of freshest verduUe.
IL was elixir TO him; the balm, aud
glow, and glitter of the tropic world.
For two weeks he went about drinking
IL in, half forgetful of his mission.
Then slowly he found himself driving
the search with an uniiagging fresh
ness of spirit that he had not known
for months. He was getting rested;
the springiness of youth, which he had
all but lost through overwork, was re-
turning to him. Yet when a month
had dropped away his efforts remained
unrewarded.
As at Charleston, the most minute
inquiry touching Ivyl Snaer yielded no
rcYealmcnt, and the footprints Of his
relatives seemed lost. Still he followed
the quest another week ere he had done
sitting; then one morning as he walked
along the Tivola Circle and crossed
its green and dewy swell, he found
himself thinking of some other field.
and at loss wuich way to turn. At
his back lay the pleasant, dreamy old
city, and there below HIM, with DOZENS
of watcr-craft riding as il upon a mir
ror. flowed the slow-moying, sea-liko
river which, far, far away in the blue
north, sucked into It's mighty trough
the limpid waters that bathcd the feet
Of Openstone. II came upon him
what fair and well-nigh illimitablo
land is ours, and how doubtful a task
was his.
He went down 10 the wharyes; sew
eral great steamers were filling for
their outward journeys; one to St.
Louis, one to Liverpool and another
to New York. A sudden impulse
seized him. He went back TO his
lrOtel, procured his luggage and by
ten O'Clock, with the fragrant brcezes
OF the Delta streaming against his fore
head, was watching the vast green
landscape melt to right and left as tho
big New York steamer moved away
over the CLASSY reaches to the gull
Something very like pleasure bloomed
through all his being rs he leaned up
on the quarter-rail and watched the
shimmcring panorama unrOll. Beauty
was more 10 him than to many. Il
tasted sweet and thrilled him when
first beheld, not unlike some strange
delicious honeycomb fresh crushed
against the palate. II was his guide,
or rather the thing that lured him.
though he was scarcely conscious Of it.
Somewhat as beauty in the material
world, in landscape, eye, cheek, brow
or carriage, made his young blood
blush about within bis veins with pleas
ure, the lovely in ethics and actions
stirred him. In either case within his
own senses il was pure feeling; tho
response Of something fine within to
something bne without, a taste detect
ing and guessing at the truth of life
and duty by natures finer ilayOrs.
AT length the steamer swept out into
the open deep, and John Earring for
the first time beheld the limitless waste
before him. How filled he was! To
north and south and east and west
stretched out the fields Of liquid gray,
Of liquid green, Of hquid blue, shot far
and near with silver. What beauty
was here! what power what breadth,
what dignity Of motion! His perception |
seemed TO widen at the sight. He did |
not ask for companionship nav, though
thai upon this DalpitatinQ hive of lifa